Crime is a growing issue in America political issue. More and more people catching on with the fact that crime is up, all different kinds of categories of crime. And you know what you need to bring down crime, you need cops. Well, that's a problem lots of different places, including in Seattle. Right now, we're gonna talk to Mike Solan, who's the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. Mike, Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Hey, happy to
be here. Appreciate you having me yet, Yeah, I want to talk about this and you know we're talking specifically about Seattle, but similar problems all across America. I'm reading right here. Over the last year and a half, the Seattle Police Department has lost two hundred and fifty police officers, which is the equivalent of over three hundred thousand service officers on path to losing three hundred police officers. That's a lot of calls that are gonna go unheeded. That's
a lot of criminals that aren't gonna get arrested. That's a lot of deterrence that's not gonna happen. Um, So tell me what's going on. Well, your statistics are spot on and as you and I both know, statistics and data do not lie. But the activist Twitter mob that is in control of Seattle's public safety political discourse dictates how things are done in Seattle, and our politicians acquiesced to the mob. And the problem is is we're now left with the reasonable citizens in the city who still
support public safety and the cops. Um, they're the ones left hold in the bag. And here we are, we've lost a third of the officers and they continue to leave because a year ago when the mayor and a current mayoral candidate who's the current president of the city Council publicly applauded this agency is the modeled, reformed agency
and just that happened days before George Floyd. And obviously when George Floyd happened, they completely pivoted their political talking points and the political betrayal from that experience as what's left to this vacuum and as public safety crisis that we are experiencing in Seattle. Um. But to your point, anybody that supported the defund nonsense, This type of crime and low staffing numbers is now a rampant throughout major
urban cities. Yeah, all across America and I've got a friend who was a police officer, and I won't mention where, but in a big city. And um, and he actually retired a little earlier than he was planning. And when he retired, he said he didn't realize how much pressure he was feeling until he retired, just that every time he was on a call, he was worried. You know, here, I'm gonna end up being a viral video. I'm gonna end up a household name for just doing my job.
And maybe I make a mistake, maybe I don't, doesn't make any difference. And uh and and just the pressure of that is that, what's is that what's causing cops to quit? And the other question I want to answer to both of these is that why cops are quitting? And are you having trouble getting people to apply? You know, well, to your last point, it's very difficult now to get people to apply to be a police officer, not just
in Seattle, but I believe nationwide. Uh. As you know, the riots post George Floyd, the activists, the antiphon mob, the Twitter mobs are referred to them as they specifically targeted officers. They've docked them, they've harassed them, they've marched on private homes, they've done they've done everything they can to try to break the system and break the spirit
of police officers. And I believe it's that people that are culpable are obviously are effectless politicians that don't have the courage or the backbone to stand up to the Twitter mob. But there's a continued political narrative to target specific parts of the criminal justice system, meaning the police
officers for just being there to do the job. And there is this fear that if you make one mistake as a human during the doing the job of a police officer, that that mistake will be amplified by the activist mob, then obviously amplified even more with the media, particular people that don't really want to put the real
message out to the American citizens. And then it's literally that police officer, that individual police officer that has left holding the bag, and they're the ones whose career and more often than not, their livelihood, their personal lives are ruined because of just the job they chose to do to serve our communities. So these are just kind of general themes we're talking about, and it's all true and it's all a problem. But let's just talk about like
the reality nuts and bolts. If you're down officers in a city like Seattle, what what actually happens? Do you just are there? Are the police just spread further apart? Are there just less people on shift at any given time? So the so if you have dialline one one, that takes that much longer to get somebody. I mean, what what happens in reality? Yeah? The reality is is that crimes don't go excuse me, crimes do not get investigated
to the degree that they used to be investigated. You're going to have longer wait times to get a police officer to you. And currently right now we're experiencing a spike and obviously the overtime because they have to spend money for officers just to fill the uniform to meet that patrol staffing level, which would be somewhat of a reasonable approach or response time to meet somebody's priority one need and the priority one call us basically a straight
up the emergency. And right now we're feeling the effects of our people are are burnt out. The people that are still left, they're doing double shifts. The money allotted for overtime is through the roof, and this is a staffing crisis that will take decades to recover, all because of the political betrayal by our elected officials in the
City of Seattle. When I mentioned a year ago, they were applauding us as being a modeled, reformed agency who were at hearing to the Department of Justice reform guidelines. And obviously days later when Floyd unfortunately happened in Minneapolis, these politicians couldn't walk away from as fast enough and that's what's led to this what I call an erosion
in public safety in the city of Seattle. Mike Soullan, President Seattle Police Officers Guild, where we appreciate you coming on today and we'll check back in with you um over the coming months to see you know, I feel like the pendulum is going to swing back the other direction because to fund the police is one of the stupidest political um phrases and and things to run on in the history of politics, and it's not popular at all, even for Democrats. But thanks for coming on today, appreciate it,
are you bet? And the just recall to action for people, do you gotta get involved and start getting involved in elections at your local school boards. And if you want further follow up, please visit my podcast Hold the Line with Mike Soland, available on all podcasts and Seattle Police Officers dot Com really appreciate you having me on you bet you, thank you. And Joe's coming up in a little bit Joe Getty and um, you know it's something Joe always says? Is that? Uh? Um, what does Joey say?
It popped out of my head. What does Jolie say? Hey, Joe, what do you always say? I'll ask him when he comes on. Um, the it's amazing. How oh about the idea of these things catching on the and and people get like a fever for these weird ideas, um like the defund the police, and a bunch of politicians say, yeah, yeah, I'm for defunding the police. It sounds like a good idea, and a tiny percentage of people got all worked all
whipped up about this stupid, stupid idea. When the majority of Americans, including Democrats and particularly people who live in crime written neighborhoods, they want more. It's not fewer in it it, but but it caught on. Corporate media latched onto it and it became a thing, and here we are. You got towns like Seattle where they're down three hundred cops soon and you just can't function as a city. It's really weird, strong,